4 ms·

Trump 'simply floated' idea of deporting U.S. citizens, White House says

33 points by perihelions 2y ago

breadwinner 2y ago
The ideal from Trump's pov is being able to deport US citizens to El Salvador... without due process. Until he can do that he can only pretend to be king. He's slowly shifting the Overton window [1] in that direction. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overton_window https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overton_window
- sorcerer-mar 2y ago
  There literally might be US citizens in the El Salvadorian mega-prison right now. Because there has not been due process for many deportations there, we do not have any way to know whether that's the case. Due process doesn't exist just to let sneaky criminals make all their sneaky little arguments like "there is no evidence I committed a crime." It also exists to establish basic facts like "what is this person's name?"
anigbrowl 2y ago
This will be how he gets rid of political enemies. If you think that's hyperbole, ask yourself whether you really, truly believed back in January that people were going to be seized off the street and deported to a movie-villain super prison in El Salvador, and taht the administration would admit it deported people in error and then shrug and say it had no way of retrieving them. In other news, the government wants to spend $45 billion building new detention camps: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/07/us/politics/trump-administration-immigrant-detention-facilities-services.html https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/07/us/politics/trump-adminis...
- sorcerer-mar 2y ago
  To be clear, they're not arguing they have no way of retrieving them. As you mention, they're also not arguing they're supposed to be there. They're arguing that a US federal judge has no jurisdiction to even demand that the government attempt to retrieve them.
- breadwinner 2y ago
  The worst part is that the Supreme Court isn't bothered by this at all. They are letting Trump continue this while they debate the legality.
k310 2y ago
As Trump cracks down on immigration, U.S. citizens are among those snared[0] WaPo. > For one man, it happened when he stepped out of a Chicago pizza shop after an afternoon of job hunting. For a 10-year-old girl and her siblings, it began at a Border Patrol checkpoint in South Texas as their family rushed to the hospital. For a man in Virginia, it started with immigration agents surrounding his truck, guns in hand. > All those people are U.S. citizens who were detained, deported or otherwise swept up in immigration enforcement actions under the Trump administration’s intensifying crackdown. > Although wrongful detentions and deportations of U.S. citizens aren’t unheard-of, recent news reports of at least seven alleged cases have alarmed attorneys, civil rights advocates and immigration scholars who say they reveal the dangers of a system accelerating with few safeguards. As the Trump administration pushes for mass deportations, expands federal enforcement and shutters oversight offices, experts warn citizens are increasingly at risk of getting caught in the dragnet. > “As immigration officials become more indiscriminate about who they’re targeting — all while they’re pressured to deport people faster and to avoid immigration court proceedings — it creates a situation in which the possibility of illegally detaining and deporting a U.S. citizen rises immensely, because citizenship is not something that we can spot on people’s foreheads,” said César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández, a law professor at Ohio State University. [0] https://archive.ph/cK7Et https://archive.ph/cK7Et

33 points by perihelions 2y ago

The ideal from Trump's pov is being able to deport US citizens to El Salvador... without due process. Until he can do that he can only pretend to be king. He's slowly shifting the Overton window [1] in that direction. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overton_window https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overton_window

sorcerer-mar 2y ago
There literally might be US citizens in the El Salvadorian mega-prison right now. Because there has not been due process for many deportations there, we do not have any way to know whether that's the case. Due process doesn't exist just to let sneaky criminals make all their sneaky little arguments like "there is no evidence I committed a crime." It also exists to establish basic facts like "what is this person's name?"

anigbrowl 2y ago

This will be how he gets rid of political enemies. If you think that's hyperbole, ask yourself whether you really, truly believed back in January that people were going to be seized off the street and deported to a movie-villain super prison in El Salvador, and taht the administration would admit it deported people in error and then shrug and say it had no way of retrieving them. In other news, the government wants to spend $45 billion building new detention camps: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/07/us/politics/trump-administration-immigrant-detention-facilities-services.html https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/07/us/politics/trump-adminis...

sorcerer-mar 2y ago
To be clear, they're not arguing they have no way of retrieving them. As you mention, they're also not arguing they're supposed to be there. They're arguing that a US federal judge has no jurisdiction to even demand that the government attempt to retrieve them.
breadwinner 2y ago
The worst part is that the Supreme Court isn't bothered by this at all. They are letting Trump continue this while they debate the legality.

k310 2y ago

As Trump cracks down on immigration, U.S. citizens are among those snared[0] WaPo. > For one man, it happened when he stepped out of a Chicago pizza shop after an afternoon of job hunting. For a 10-year-old girl and her siblings, it began at a Border Patrol checkpoint in South Texas as their family rushed to the hospital. For a man in Virginia, it started with immigration agents surrounding his truck, guns in hand. > All those people are U.S. citizens who were detained, deported or otherwise swept up in immigration enforcement actions under the Trump administration’s intensifying crackdown. > Although wrongful detentions and deportations of U.S. citizens aren’t unheard-of, recent news reports of at least seven alleged cases have alarmed attorneys, civil rights advocates and immigration scholars who say they reveal the dangers of a system accelerating with few safeguards. As the Trump administration pushes for mass deportations, expands federal enforcement and shutters oversight offices, experts warn citizens are increasingly at risk of getting caught in the dragnet. > “As immigration officials become more indiscriminate about who they’re targeting — all while they’re pressured to deport people faster and to avoid immigration court proceedings — it creates a situation in which the possibility of illegally detaining and deporting a U.S. citizen rises immensely, because citizenship is not something that we can spot on people’s foreheads,” said César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández, a law professor at Ohio State University. [0] https://archive.ph/cK7Et https://archive.ph/cK7Et